Information on individual advisers - October 2022


Reference Case Number: FOI9661

Freedom of Information: Right to know request:

Can you please tell me the number of individual advisers (not firms) that fall into the following categories, for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021?:

  • Unclassified
  • Both
  • Independent
  • Restricted
  • Total

FCA response:

We have processed your email in line with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and our response is below.

Please note that the figures provided in our previous publication have since been revised due to a change in the methodology for collecting the data, the current set of data can be found in the table below.

Year

No advice type reported

Both

Independent

Restricted

Grand Total

2018

291

4403

15759

15414

35867

2019

265

4378

16007

15763

36413

2020

244

3949

15346

17168

36707

2021

281

5557

15940

14866

36644

Source: Retail Mediation Activities Return (RMAR) section G (number of staff who give advice on retail investment products). The number of adviser staff reflect a mix of firms categorised as financial advisers and other firms that carry out retail investment business that submit section G and employ adviser staff.

In considering the table above, please note the following:

  • Firms report whether they provide only Restricted advice, only Independent advice or a mixture of both. Firms do not report the number of their advisers that provide each category of advice. Therefore, for firms reporting that they provide both categories of advice, we cannot determine the number of advisers providing each.
  • All the data used for this request are from the RMAR returns data submitted by firms and have not been subject to systematic cleansing.